Somehow I think the shorter the better for this post. Let me quote Paul Mallard who I heard recently at Keswick. “Do not preach because you love preaching. Preach because you love Jesus.”
Preacher’s Personal Life
How is Your Preaching Toolbox?
So I started into Spurgeon’s Lectures and got about, well, more or less, about a page in before I was “arrested” by his helpful thinking. Here’s a taster
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We are, in a certain sense, our own tools, and therefore must keep ourselves in order. If I want to preach the gospel, I can only use my own voice; therefore I must train my vocal powers. I can only think with my own brains, and feel with my own heart, and therefore I must educate my intellectual and emotional faculties. I can only weep and agonise for souls in my own renewed nature, therefore must I watchfully maintain the tenderness which was in Christ Jesus. It will be in vain for me to stock my library, or organise societies, or project schemes, if I neglect the culture of myself; for books, and agencies, and systems, are only remotely the instruments of my holy calling; my own spirit, soul, and body, are my nearest machinery for sacred service; my spiritual faculties, and my inner life, are my battle axe and weapons of war.
Your library, your laptop, your office, your desk, your starbucks tab are all secondary. The real tools of the trade for a preacher are their heart and their head, their own inner life and spiritual walk.
Okay, One More Spurgeon Quote
Honestly, I’m at Keswick this week, moving on Monday, and a little overwhelmed, so I am resorting to an easy source for quality thought-provoking material. Spurgeon. Following on from yesterday and thinking about preaching to save souls, here’s a blast worth receiving:
If we ourselves doubt the power of the gospel, how can we preach it with authority? Feel that you are a favored man in being allowed to proclaim the good news, and rejoice that your mission is fraught with eternal benefit to those before you. Let the people see how glad and confident the gospel has made you, and it will go far to make them long to partake in its blessed influences.
Preach very solemnly, for it is a weighty business, but let your matter be lively and pleasing, for this will prevent solemnity from souring into dreariness. Be so thoroughly solemn that all your faculties are aroused and consecrated, and then a dash of humor will only add intenser gravity to the discourse, even as a flash of lightning makes midnight darkness all the more impressive. Preach to one point, concentrating all your energies upon the object aimed at. There must be no riding of hobbies, no introduction of elegancies of speech, no suspicion of personal display, or you will fail. Sinners are quick-witted people, and soon detect even the smallest effort to glorify self. Forego everything for the sake of those you long to save. Be a fool for Christ’s sake if this will win them, or be a scholar, if that will be more likely to impress them. Spare neither labor in the study, prayer in the closet, nor zeal in the pulpit. If men do not judge their souls to be worth a thought, compel them to see that their minister is of a very different opinion.
Some things have changed ever so slightly, but the bulk of this quote is well worth pondering in respect to our preaching today. Perhaps it would be worth spending a season in prayer, asking God to make the souls of those around as important to us as they are to Him. That might prompt prayer, and preaching, as never before.
(Quote from Thielicke’s Encounter with Spurgeon, pp58-9.)
Projected Perspectives
I think most preachers who have some level of commitment to an expository approach to preaching are fairly clear on the importance of understanding the Bible and their listeners. It is the two worlds that John Stott referred to in his great book on the subject. I suspect most preachers are less aware of the inner world that Haddon Robinson refers to – the inner world of the preacher.
It is easy to assume that I know more about me than anyone does, except God, of course. To a certain extent that is true. The problem is in the blind spots. We all have them. We all struggle to spot them or recognise their influence on our preaching. Let me suggest a few aspects of the inner world of the preacher and how such things will influence our preaching.
The Value System We Assimilated Growing Up – Perhaps you grew up in a family situation where some things were valued higher than others. Actually, you did grow up in such a situation, for good or bad. Perhaps a strong work ethic, or a weak one. Perhaps a high concern for what others think. Perhaps task over people. Perhaps a view of the class structure of society. Perhaps a skewed definition of success. Perhaps under the pressure of perfectionism. Perhaps in an atmosphere of racism, or sexism, or any other -ism. Whatever value system you absorbed, it is influencing you. Even if you think you’ve processed, rejected, reacted, or adjusted, it is still important to be aware of the grid through which your value system may process information, situations, biblical texts, and applications thereof.
The Emotional Baggage We Carry From The Past – Some of the items listed above result in emotional baggage. So too does past trauma, relational breakdown, personal sin, the sin of others, abuse, grief, loss, etc. While some of us have been spared the agony that others have had to face, and the burden they’ve secretly carried, none of us are free of emotional baggage. Guilt, pressure, failure, pain, loneliness, grief, hurt, etc., will all influence our preaching imperceptibly (to us, but listeners will pick up a vibe at some point). It is easy to project hidden issues onto texts and application. We need to prayerfully and conversationally process these things in order to know the inner world of ourselves as preachers.
The Personality Preferences and Tendencies We Assume To Be Normal or Right – Everyone else has issues. I’m normal. You probably are too. But actually we need to be aware of our own quirks in order that we don’t press them onto others. Introvert or extrovert. A way of thinking. A sense of humour. A view of the world. An inner wiring to desire to be liked, or to be right, or to be accepted. An approach to interpersonal communication. A preferred conflict resolution style. A level of energy or enthusiasm for certain things.
I don’t want to advocate for self-absorption or self-obsession. We need to keep our gaze fixed on Christ. Nevertheless, as we look to Him, let’s be honest with Him and ask Him to help us be aware of how the inner landscape of our lives might be influencing how we handle the text, how we preach it, how we live it.
A Reader, A Wise Reader
Preachers need to be, as well as many other things, readers. But unless you are single and financially set for life, you probably don’t have as much time as you’d like for reading. Join the club. So this post includes some thoughts, then perhaps you can share your suggestions and experiences too.
1. Reading book reviews can offer a varied input without massive time. I find it helpful to scan through and read some of the reviews in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, as well as a couple of other journals. There are many sources of book reviews, both academic and popular level, for Christian and wider reading.
2. Break the buyers obligation mindset. So many people I know feel trapped by an unwritten rule that states if you buy a book you must read cover to cover, including preface and foreword, before moving on to another book. Loose yourself from such a yoke of slavery! If you pay ten dollars, pounds, yen or whatever for a book, and one chapter is all that you really need to read, then you paid ten dollars/pounds/yen for that chapter (the other chapters were a free gift from the publisher for you to keep on your shelves or give to someone else!)
3. Read wisely, which isn’t just word by word. Preview a chapter before you read it, scan the pages, check out the conclusion, survey the headings, etc. Read for learning rather than simply achieving the page goal.
4. Be ready to read in snippets. You have five minutes to wait before your ride arrives at the mechanic’s place to pick you up . . . so you read two pages (and when they are a few minutes later, you’ve read more!) You think you’ll have no time to wait when you pick up the car, but without a book the opportunity is wasted when they take an extra thirty minutes to be finished (does this sound like something that just happened to me?)
5. Perhaps a balanced diet approach might help. I heard of one minister who had a daily regimen of reading for two hours. Thirty minutes of Bible. Thirty minutes of a christian book. Thirty minutes of a non-Christian book. Thirty minutes of a cricket book. Diligent habits like that result in a lot of knowledge of cricket, or Bible, or whatever you care about. Maybe that’s why I know almost nothing about cricket. Actually, I know about the things I care about, because I make time for them. Which is my point.
What do you do to help you be a reader, a wise reader?
Spirituality – Which Room?
When I post on the Cor Deo blog, I link to it on this site. Today’s post is relevant for us all as believers, and as we consider the effect of our preaching on others. Please take a look, and if you wouldn’t mind, please leave a comment too – that would be really helpful!
The Preacher’s Space
We have just returned from a two-month “home assignment/furlough” and are planning to move house in a month. Consequently the desk is overloaded, the to-do list is growing like a newborn and things will probably only get worse. Which leads me to today’s post . . . the preacher needs space.
Desk Space – When peripheral vision is taking in eight piles, lots of post-it notes, growing inbox notifications and unopened mail . . . it’s hard to concentrate. At this time I suppose I can be excused for taking my Bible, a notepad and pen, and going to a Starbucks, or a park bench, or just another room in order to prepare for Sunday. But when we move, I need to implement (for the first time, or again) a system that will keep a clear desk.
Schedule Space – When the time flies by and there is more and more to do, this is a problem for the preacher. Even if you’re not moving or trying to find your desk after a two-month absence, the realities of ministry and family life are always there. Which means we need to plan ahead and schedule buffer appointments – spare hours, spare afternoons, spare days, potentially even “spare” weeks. Make appointments with family so they don’t miss out, make appointments with God so He doesn’t get squeezed, and make appointments with an old friend that you haven’t seen lately – Mr Buffer Time.
Mental Space – I don’t mean space between the ears, but space to think, to pray, to meditate. Pressure cooker sermons can turn out. In fact, they can be positively dynamite. They can also be negatively dynamite. Too many of them can undermine your spiritual integrity, overwhelm your listeners with perceived tension, and ultimately lead to low-level personal meltdowns. If you are a weekly preacher, ask for a week off before you are desperate for it. Be humble, admit your need of help. As it says in Psalm 127, if we are part of what God is building, then He continues to give (and build), even while we, his beloved, sleep.
Other Space – There are other types of space we need too. Space to release tension physically through exercise, to interact socially (who wants to hear a preacher that never has time to be with people?), to enjoy time with the Lord – i.e. not a business appointment in prayer, we’re all good at those.
Suggestion – So much could be added, and please do add suggestions, both in terms of resources, books, but also ideas, etc. Let me suggest one book. Getting Things Done by David Allen.
Bible Reading Advice
I didn’t get to write a post today as we were travelling back from the US. But I thought I’d offer a link to my friend’s blog as his latest post is well worth reading for all preachers. Here’s the link to SpreadingGoodness.org.
Love People To Jesus
Lacking motivation for anything productive (post-preaching experience, anyone?), I decided to dip into Thielicke’s Encounter with Spurgeon again. Guess how many paragraphs I had to read before being ready to offer another post (and that largely by quotation)? One. Check this out:
“Among the important elements in the promotion of conversion are your own tone, temper, and spirit in preaching. If you preach the truth in a dull, monotonous style, God may bless it, but in all probability he will not; at any rate the tendency of such a style is not to promote attention, but to hinder it. It is not often that sinners are awakened by ministers who are themselves asleep. A hard, unfeeling mode of speech is also to be avoided; want of tenderness is a sad lack, and repels rather than attracts. The spirit of Elijah may startle, and where it is exceedingly intense it may go far to prepare for the reception of the gospel; but for actual conversion more of John is needed – love is the winning force. We must love men to Jesus. Great hearts are the main qualifications for great preachers, and we must cultivate our affections to that end. At the same time our manner must not degenerate into the soft and saccharine cant which some men affect who are forever “dearing” everybody, and fawning upon people as if they hoped to soft-sawder them into godliness. Manly persons are disgusted, and suspect hypocrisy when they hear a preacher talking molasses. Let us be bold and outspoken, and never address our hearers as if we were asking a favor of them, or as if they would oblige the Redeemer by allowing him to save them. We are bound to be lowly, but our office as ambassadors should prevent our servile . . .”
Back to me again. Rather than repeating some of the gems in that paragraph, I have to ask why so many today are so quick to think only in black and white terms, to fail to differentiate within categories. If you speak of the importance of love, then you are tarred with the same brush as the “dearing” crowd mentioned above. If you mention the importance of tone, then you are sometimes considered a performance focused homiletician who doesn’t care about content. Let’s be bold and outspoken, proclaiming the gospel with great hearts for God, never talking the molasses that disgusts the manly, but loving people to Jesus.
We Don’t Believe You!
Thielicke responds to Spurgeon’s insistence on the necessity for the farmer to sharpen his scythe (the need for Sabbath, for rest, for sabbatical, for vacation, for refreshment, as well as for preparation and, indirectly, training) with this:
Nor can the fisherman always be fishing; he must mend his nets. . . . Whereas Spurgeon enjoins us to remember that preachers must not think too highly of themselves as instruments but in faith accept that they are dispensable, we hound our young vicars – not everybody does this, I know, but many do! – chasing them from examinations into the bustling business of pastoral service in the big cities, from funerals to marriage, and from the pulpit to doorbell-ringing, opening the pores of the body of Christ to all the bacilli against which, after all, we should be mobilizing the antibiotic of our message of peace. We keep killing flowers in the bud, because we no longer let things grow because down underneath we have forgotten how to pray “Thy kingdom come,” and in its place have put our “manager’s faith,” our belief that everything can be produced and organized.
How true this is today. If you are in leadership in a church, what would be the most honest label for what you do? Spiritual leader? Or People Pleaser? Or Program Manager? Or Schedule Maintainer? Or, well, fill in the blank as you choose. Too easily the demands of ministry turn the spiritual into the stressed, the example into the bad example.
Health warning: what follows is likely to make you feel convicted and you may need to lie down. You may not be able to concentrate on other things for a few minutes, perhaps longer. You may need to kneel with the urge to pray, to confess, to repent.
We preach “Do not be anxious!” – and at the same time worry ourselves to death about whether everybody will he this. We say, “God reigns” – and still we run about madly keeping the ecclesiastical machinery going. We proclaim man’s passive righteousness (the righteousness that comes from God)- and still we behave like activists. We preach eternity; but when Jesus asks us, “Did you have enough of everything?” we will have to reply, “Oh, no; we didn’t have enough time.” This is why we preach peace and radiate restlessness. This is why we give stones instead of bread, and men do not believe us. The faith is refuted by the incredulity of those who proclaim it. (p.12)
Biblical Preaching 